Washington State AD Says School's Athletic Department On Track For Record Deficit

Washington State AD Bill Moos on Thursday said that he "anticipates a record deficit" that may exceed $10M for the fiscal year that ends June 30, according to Howie Stalwick of SCOUT.com. Moos expects that "increased TV revenue will help reduce the deficit" in '15 and '16 before WSU turns a profit in '17. He added that approximately $8M of the projected losses for the fiscal year will "result from bond payments" kicking in for improvements to Martin Stadium made in '12 and construction of the football operations building. The athletic department "lost a record" $6.62M in FY '12, then lost $4.47M -- the "second most in school history -- in the past fiscal year." Before "losing money the past five years," the department previously "turned a profit eight straight years." Moos noted that the school's financial support of athletics during the past fiscal year "was reduced" from $2.8M to $339,000. He added that the school "lost $250,000 on their trip" to the Gildan New Mexico Bowl. However, Moos said, "That’s a good investment for a program that hadn’t been to a bowl game in 10 years." WSU CFO Matt Kleffner said that the school "had to pay an estimated $20,000-25,000 for failing to sell all 5,000 allotted tickets." Meanwhile, Moos is "presently seeking money to build a baseball clubhouse and a new indoor football facility," and also hopes to "sell naming rights for the indoor football facility, baseball clubhouse and soccer field." Moos added that he is "not selling naming rights to Martin" (SCOUT.com, 1/9).